Hyderabad : Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Indian Cellular Association (ICA), the apex body of mobile handset industry and Munoth Industries Limited today formally announced the setting up of India’s first Lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant for the mobile industry.

 

Under the aegis of the announcement, Munoth Industries will set up the plant at an outlay of Rs 799 crore in 3 phases. The proposed manufacturing plant to be located at Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) 2, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh which eventually will have a capacity of 1 million Ah per day.

 

Commenting on this announcement, Mr. Pankaj Mohindroo, National President, ICA said, “It is a tribute to the growing confidence of the investor’s community that entrepreneurs and investors from diverse industries including financial services, healthcare, software etc. are casting their vote of confidence in the burgeoning mobile phone and components industry. We are glad to support Munoth Industries Ltd. in building the factory for the future. As the core component, it will be manufactured in India, the natural corollary of this will be that there will be an increase in the value addition through the Lithium-ion based products which will cater to the mobile industry.  This core component plant will catalyze establishment of an entire eco-system of forward and backward integration – forward integration to bring in through design houses, tooling facilities and many SME startups besides catering to the mobile battery pack industry as an OEM supplier. The current consumption of batteries is approx. 400 – 450 million per annum for mobile phones including replacement and about 100 million p.a. for power banks.”

 

“This project is of great importance to us. The company has been allotted on outright basis 30 acres of land by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) and has received all the required approvals from Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) and Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) on M-SIPS benefits. We are looking at achieving a market share of approximately 6% of the total number of batteries consumed in the Mobile phone industry in India during the 1st phase of production. Also, we will be looking at recruiting 1700 people for this three-phase project, most of them will be High School pass, Supervisory staffs will be Graduates and Managerial staff will be either Engineering Graduates or Post Graduates”, said Mr. Jaswant Munoth, Chairman, Munoth Industries.

 

Vikas Munoth, Managing Director, Munoth Industries said, “Undoubtedly Mobile handset and its components manufacturing eco-system is an important focus area of the Government under the Make in India initiative. The decision of Munoth Industries to set up the country’s first ever Lithium-ion cell manufacturing plant for mobile handsets is truly a revolutionary step which is aimed at supporting the Government’s goal to step up value addition in the mobile handset sector in sync with the Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP). We at Munoth Industries reaffirm our strong support to the Government’s focus to enhance value addition and generate employment. We are fully confident that India will emerge to be a strong nation in terms of establishment of a robust components/core-components eco-system in the coming years.”

 

Mr. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & IT said, “With this project launch, India is preparing itself to become more competitive with enhanced value addition and employment generation. Lithium-ion cell is a core component for mobile phone industry. As of now, Lithium-ion cells are imported and battery packs are assembled in India using the imported cells and with this project of Munoth Industries, we will begin our journey to become a pioneer in this space. The M-SIPS approval for this project was given by the Ministry in record time which is a clear testament of the Government’s increasing focus on enhancing ease of doing business and our total commitment to support the establishment of components/core-components manufacturing eco-system.”

 

Mr. VK Saraswat, Member – NITI Aayog said “It is quite encouraging to note that India is growing faster on the value addition scale more than expectations at least in the mobile handset sector. No doubt, Lithium-ion is a core component and setting up of a plant by Munoth Industries will go a long way to fulfil India’s aspiration to become a dominant player in the components/ core-components space. The Government will continue to strive towards the establishment of a more comprehensive core-components and components manufacturing enabled eco-system with increasing focus on value addition and to have less dependency on imports led eco-system.”

 

The first phase of the project will be operational by March 2019 and the 2nd & 3rd phases by 2022. Munoth Industries Ltd.’s Lithium-ion cell manufacturing is first of its kind in India as part of Indian Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.